◆ SpookStack

DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNIVED STaTES ffice of \ REFREE IN BANKRUPTCY Y x WESTERN DIBTRICT OF TENNESSEE ( \" MEMPHIS “\ ‘ Peptember 9, 1925 Hon. Jd. =. Hoover, COPY Chief of Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C. My doar Sir: On the 15th of April, 1922, 1 had the honor of appointment es Referee in Bankruptcy for the Western Division of the Weatern District of Tennessee, At that time, as the reoords of the Court will] establish, " atooxed benkruptcies were running riot, @ue quite = goof deal to the = fact that the then Refere: took no interest in wnderteking the surb ~ them, and, further, that he was a man of no experience whatever in thaf : line of work, At the timeof my appointment there was ea branch of your Sureau here under the direction of Mr, Towler, whose headquarters —_ if were, a8 now, in Nashville, I immediately availed myself of the “% services of thet branch, end so long es it sontinoed in exiatence we had great success in the apprehension and convistion of sriminal bankrupts this lasted about a year and then the Memphis branch became disorganised, which situation continued for about a yeat. During that time there was another outbreak of outrageous frauds, ané we were abie to make wery little headway in our campaign for the suppression of this class of offenders, because these dishonest bankrupts knew es well as we did that the pureau only occasionally had a representative here and was crippled. then you beceme Chief of the Bureau and life was again injected into the campaign, Since your inoumbency, and because of the interest you have taken in these matters, we have bad only one serieus cape, That case was promptly and most efficiently investigated, with the result that there were developed facts which make out an absolutely perfect case, and the offender is now under indictment, with the certainty of conviction, fhe fact of khe assistance, activity ahd efficienay of your Bureau is so well know to those inclined to violate the penal eection of the senkruptcy lew that they have become afrais to experinent With it, in fact, 1 am able to say that in this Division your Bureau is the very backbone of prevention of this character of crime, aud is